Printing devices may include various systems, methods, and/or devices to apply ink, toner, or other substances to an image medium (e.g., a sheet of paper). A printing device may, for example, apply ink to a sheet of paper using a printhead with multiple nozzles to eject ink onto the paper. Many printing devices may include traditional scanning printheads that scan back and forth over a sheet of paper while applying ink. Printing devices with scanning printheads may be inefficient for high speed printing because of the time it takes for the printhead to scan back and forth while printing a document and may require multiple passes over the same area on a sheet of paper to ensure acceptable image quality.
Some printing devices may include a fixed or semi-fixed page-wide array printhead to apply ink, toner, or other image creation substance to an image medium. A fixed page-wide array printhead may apply ink to a sheet of paper using multiple nozzles, and the printhead may include sufficient nozzles to statically span the width of a sheet of paper. A printing device may include a device to advance a sheet of paper under the printhead. Printing devices with fixed page-wide array printheads may be commonly used for high volume and/or high speed draft quality print jobs. Printing devices with fixed page-wide array printheads may be well suited for high volume printing because the fixed printhead includes relatively few moving parts, the fixed printhead does not change direction or move during printing, and the image medium may be advanced at a high speed relative to the printhead during the ink application process.
A printing device including a typical fixed page-wide array printhead may, however, be less effective for printing high quality images because image defects and/or artifacts may occur. A print defect may, for example, occur when a nozzle becomes clogged and does not apply ink to the paper below. Defects and artifacts may be caused by inaccuracies, which may include paper advance inaccuracies, misplacement of ink dots, variations between different nozzles, and other inaccuracies. The high prevalence of defects and artifacts in images created with typical fixed page-wide array printheads may, thus, make high quality image printing challenging or impossible.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. Moreover, some of the blocks depicted in the drawings may be combined into a single function.